


Day One

by passeridae



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Office, M/M, Monster Reaper | Gabriel Reyes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-14
Updated: 2019-02-14
Packaged: 2019-10-28 07:19:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 567
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17783030
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/passeridae/pseuds/passeridae
Summary: Jack starts a new job. It goes about as well as can be expected until he meets his new coworker.





	Day One

Jack breathes deep and straightens his tie again, staring at the glass doors in front of him like they’re going to bite. It’s just a desk job, he reassures himself. Nothing to worry about. You can’t fuck it up too much, probably. 

Hopefully.

The introductions are as bland as white bread, and he smiles and nods and makes interested noises as the company representative talks about the great office culture and ergonomic desks and company lunch every Friday. Company paid for lunch doesn’t sound too bad at least, it’ll be a nice change from leftovers. 

“And here’s your cubicle!” the man says at last, gesturing expansively to pretty much the blandest cube Jack has seen in his life. Near the edge of the floor, small mercies, but otherwise small and cramped and he hates it already. Perhaps he should have just gone back to the family farm, ugh, at least the view would be more interesting. He smiles, polite, and thanks the man, moving to settle himself in.

“Oh, your coworker, Gabriel, will be back shortly, I think he’s at lunch now. Be nice to him, yeah?”

“Yeah, of course,” Jack responds, reflexive, suddenly thrown for a loop. Be nice to him? Isn’t it usually the other way round, telling the old hands to be nice to the new person? While he’s blinking in confusion, the representative hurries away almost at a power walk. He seemed kind of sweaty under the halogen lights, now that Jack thinks about it, perhaps he needed the bathroom. Having those only at one end of the building is honestly a disaster waiting to happen. Ah well.

Gabriel arrives just as Jack is getting bored of poking around his fresh-from-the-box computer. The first sign is a fizzing in the lights overhead, a flicker off and then on again slightly dimmer than before. After this comes a faint contrabasso humming, increasing in volume from the faintest whisper to something almost irritating. Jack rubs at his ear, huffs out a breath, and keeps playing solitaire. When will his coworker get back from lunch, he’s really starting to get bored now. It’s been almost an hour, how long is a lunch break here anyway?

Something taps him on the shoulder. He turns around, yet another polite smile already forming on his lips, which morphs into something open mouthed and genuinely pleased when he sees his coworker for the first time.

He’s so big, is his first thought, almost eight feet in height and just as broad. He seems to lack a humanoid form, being composed instead of countless writhing tentacles, mouths, and eyes that shift size and location from one moment to the next, lending him the air of the world’s most horrific kaleidoscope. The humming sound that Jack has passed off as his poor hearing seems to be coming from somewhere inside him, and it grows in pitch as Jack takes him in. “Hi,” he eventually breathes, utterly enchanted, “I’m Jack.” He sticks out a hand, which a tentacle delicately wraps around so they can shake. Suckers adhere to the thin skin of his wrist and he has to suppress a shiver. “Gabriel,” a voice responds, resonant like a pure note from a tuning fork and making Jack’s teeth ache in his mouth. It rings in his ears long after the sound itself has faded.

Perhaps this job won’t be so bad after all.


End file.
